Ghost Adventures Recap: Pennhurst State School and Hospital

“PENNHURST STATE SCHOOL AND HOSPITAL” SPRING CITY, PA

Zak, Nick, and Aaron are back with their first investigation of the season at Pennhurst State. Pennhurst became infamous in the 1980s when word spread about the despicable conditions in which the patients were forced to live. Pennhurst was home to more than 3,000 mentally challenged, mentally disabled, and developmentally disabled patients. There were countless claims of abuse.

Pennhurst State opened its doors in 1908, and sis on over 100 acres of land. Each building is connected by underground tunnels. At one time, about 10,000 people called this place home. A former employee, Greg, tells Zak some of the history of the place. He talked about the horrible living accommodations for the patients and unbelievable treatment. In 1968, Bill Balclini, a news correspondent, did a series of stories about the horrific treatment and blew the lid off what was hidden for many years. Forced to close in 1987, some walking the grounds can still hear the screams, chilling them to the bone. An eyewitness caught a sound on her recorder like someone was throwing up, while taking a tour through the infirmary.

While doing the interviews, Zak, Nick and Aaron heard a loud banging from within a building on the second floor. They went in to investigate and saw a desk toppled over with fresh skid marks underneath. They were told that the average person at Pennhurst would only get an average of three minutes a year for any treatment. Many lost teeth from not getting medical attention for such a long period of time. If a patient bit someone, all their teeth were removed. There was lots of sexual abuse as well, by employee to patient and patient to patient. Dean takes the boys down in the tunnels that connected the buildings. They need to wear masks because of the harmful mold and asbestos that was down there. Another eyewitness tells a story about being in a room with friends and their candles just blew out on their own. After it was dark, they heard a little girl laugh. She also saw a little girl's ghost in Franklin Hall wearing a white dress. A contractor and his son were walking outside the buildings and saw someone peeking out the a window. They noticed the curtains were pushed back like someone moved them to look outside. No one was in the buildings at the time. Zak and the boys went up to the room and found out that no one could get close to the windows because of the wire mesh over them. They tried moving the curtains but they didn’t move at all.

Right before lock down time, they take a helicopter to check out the place and see where all the buildings are located. Now it is time for lock down and in order to lock the door, it is screwed shut. They set up base in the Administration building and plan where all the static night vision cameras will be placed. The 12 hour investigation begins with them walking downstairs to the underground tunnels where they put on their masks. Because it was pitch black, Nick trips over a chair and cuts himself. After he is bandaged, they use the power drill to take off some boards so they can investigate the areas that are boarded up. They enter the Mayflower building and head up some stairs. Zak starts his taunting and they get a spike in the EMF device. Shortly afterwards Nick captures on his recorder a man's voice saying "go away" after Zak asked "do you like us being here". Right afterwards they captured a little girls voice saying "hello", then a man's voice saying "What are you doing?" The temperature got very hot then drops ten degrees in a matter of seconds. They place a doll on the floor to entice the little girl's spirit but she didn’t touch it. Sensing that her spirit had left the room, they head upstairs where they hear unseen footsteps. The third floor in that building was so active with all kinds of noises all around them. They even caught another man's voice telling them to "get out". They set up a camera on the third floor and right after they left it recorded breathing, unexplained noises, and a door slamming.

Now they are back in the tunnels with their masks on and after walking a distance the recorded an unexplained banging on their cameras. They felt like someone was following them. Nick’s recorder captured a female voice then a man's voice saying "sweet". The sweet was very clear. They set up a camera in the tunnels and 15 minutes and 32 seconds after they left, one of the cameras captured an eerie female scream. Next, they went back to the Rockwell building and found the desk that appeared to have moved earlier. After Zak asked if they, the spirits, were here or not, Nick's recorder captured a voice saying "help me". Then a rock was thrown at them and almost hit Zak while their recorder caught a hissing sound at the same time. Zak thanks the spirit for giving them a sign that he asked for. Right afterwards, Zak sees a white mist and feels something touching his pocket. They set up a camera in that active area and left to explore somewhere else. 35 minutes and 15 seconds afterwards, the camera captured a sound like someone was trying to open a door and jiggling the handle.

Zak puts on the video goggles where the words can be seen by him. It comes equipped with infra red inside so he can see the words. They head up to Quaker Hall which has the worst energy because the most aggressive patients were kept there. After asking what they did to you there, the word "hit" comes up in the goggles. While walking around in the pitch dark, Zak runs into a hat rack lying in the way, which scratches him. After reviewing the footage, they noticed that the hat rack was on the other side of the wall and not on the wall where Zak ran into it. It had to be physically lifted and moved in order for it to end up in front of Zak. Zak angrily asked "who did this" and the audio picked up "the girl did" as a response.

This is one place that they felt carried the most weight for paranormal activity and reported sightings.

Go here to watch Pennhurst State School once again.

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